The Application Process

I've had several friends ask if the church called us in and told us we needed to go on a mission.  No, that is not how it happened.  It doesn't work that way.  The Holy Spirit of God was the one that called us.  While we sat in that cool upper balcony in the Celestial room in the Portland temple.  The spirit clearly told both Hanna and me that we were to serve and that we were to serve right now.

The first step in the official process is to tell our Bishop what had happened.  We did that within days of arriving home from Portland.  Our largest fear of this meeting with our Bishop is that he would tell us that our experience in the temple was not real and that the Lord really wanted us to continue to serve locally with the youth in our congregation.  They need a good Scoutmaster.  They need a good Seminary Teacher.  We expressed that fear to our wonderful Bishop right up front after we broke the news to him.  He just smiled and said, "I would never keep someone from serving a mission."

Perhaps it was out of guilt. Maybe concern.  More likely it was out of love for the youth of our congregation we work so hard with and spend so much time with.  But we came prepared with formal exit plans to present to the Bishop.  I began to tell him who the next Scoutmaster would be, how that transition would work, and how he would be trained.  This included a trip to the Wood Badge Course in May where I promised I would personally officiate over this new Scoutmaster, making sure he learned every single concept and came home a highly trained Scout Leader.  Hanna did the same for her Seminary position.  The Bishop patiently heard us out, and then with a smile said, "the Lord knows who the next Scoutmaster and Seminary Teacher should be and will reveal that to me soon."  His faith was an amazing example to me and a lot of the anxiety about serving a mission and leaving my boys behind left me at that point.

That night he pushed the button giving us access to the LDS Missionary Portal, on on-line site that has gobs of information about being a missionary and also has the official missionary application.

Now, know that when I am not out scouting and playing, I actually prepare fairly complex federal and multi-state corporate tax returns for owner-managed small businesses.  I fill out forms for a living.  But I have to say, my most complex corporate tax return has nothing on the official missionary application.  Not because it requires a lot of math and tax laws, but because it requires you to provide A LOT of information.  Personal information including where your descendants came from, prior missionary experiences, languages you know, how open you are to learning a new language, church positions you have held, what you do for a living, what skills you have, where you would like to serve and doing what (although there is a disclaimer that the Lord will call you to wherever He sees fit, finances and how much you can spend (Senior missions cost anywhere from $1,500 to $3,500 per month and the church will not send you some place that is above your budget limitations), how you will manage any debt while you are serving, an availability to serve date which they in most cases honor for Senior Couples, and then pages upon pages upon pages of medical questions and stuff.  You must be up to date on all your Senior type medical probing including colonoscopy, mammogram, prostate exam.  All immunizations must be in place or you need to get them.  My doctor had to sign off on all of that plus recommend a maximum activity level.  (Mine put no restrictions..........good things.........after all, I did ascend Mt St Helen's less than a year ago!).  And my Dentist had to sign off that my teeth would survive without her for the duration of my mission.

We expected to fill this application form out over a few days.  Most folks who have been through it before recommending four months to do so.  It took us about two months to get all the information on it that we needed.

Seeings that the Concepcion, Chile Temple will be dedicated while we serve, we thought it would be great to serve in that mission, the same mission I served in when I was 19.  We put it down on the application.  But a few weeks later felt prompted to remove it and put no recommendation down as to area as we want to be available to serve really anywhere the Lord needs us.  We did indicate that we wanted to serve as Member and Leadership Support/Proselyting Missionaries.  This would put us out working with people rather than in an office situation or in a visitor's center.

Once the application was filled out, we pushed the magic "submit" button and it was transmitted to our Bishop.  He then called us each in for a missionary interview.

This interview was very much unlike the Bishop interview I had when I was preparing to serve when I was 19.  That one was very oriented around my personal worthiness and state of repentance.  This one was very testimony oriented.  The Bishop kindly asked me why I wanted to serve a mission.  To share my testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ.  To share my testimony of Joseph Smith.  We shared tender tears as we both testified to each other of the power of the atonement in healing grieving hearts, mine for the death of my son and him for the death of his first wife.  He also went through the many pages of the application to make sure it was complete and asked me to clarify what some of the things my doctor had written meant so he would understand what he was signing off on.  He also had a set of his own questions he needed to fill in, one of which was what caused my divorce many years ago.

He then pushed his "submit" button and the entire application then was sent electronically to the Stake President.

A short time later, we found ourselves in the Stake President’s office, where he too reviewed our application with us, both of us together.  This interview was more of a “do you really know what you are doing?” type of interview.  He asked us about our finances, our business, how we were paying for the mission, made sure we knew we were paying our own travel, etc.  He was encouraging and excited and at the end, told us he would send the application off to church headquarters as soon as possible.  He told us it could not be submitted more than 120 days prior to our departure date of June 1st.  (We later found out Senior Couples can submit up to nine months in advance).

We went home nervous, but amazed that we would have a call soon.  And the waiting began…………

Here is how our time line looked from the time we decided to go until we received the actual mission call in the mail.

Revelation received in the temple to go:  November 14

We told the Bishop we wanted to go:  November 19

Official Bishop Interviews:  January 11

Official Stake President Interview:  January 14

Stake President Submitted to Church Headquarters:  January 29

An Apostle assigned us to a mission:  February 9

Date mission call signed by President Nelson:  February 13

Mission Call arrived in our mail box:  February 20